Crabbers Feel Pinched By Possible Limitations

NEWPORT NEWS — Watermen say there are plenty of crabs - and that you shouldn't believe those scientists who say alarming things about declining numbers in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

"I never saw so many small crabs in my life," said Douglas F. Jenkins Jr. during a public hearing Tuesday. "I stepped on 75 or 100 of them each day, crawling over the boat like flies."

But regulators say there's a glut of some types of crabbing licenses and crab-catching equipment. For the industry to be more efficient, they say, rules need to be tightened - not necessarily to reduce the catch, but to be sure it doesn't grow too fast.

Talk about tightening rules to prevent growth in any part of the $25 million crab industry doesn't sit well with those who make their living on the water.

And that was clear during debate before the Virginia Marine Resources Commission about an increasingly popular corner of that industry: peeler crabs. They make up 5 to 10 percent of Virginia's crabbing industry.

Watermen filled the commission chamber to ask that rules stay the same. A vote on the changes is scheduled next month.

Peelers are immature, female blue crabs that are caught before they're old enough to reproduce. The season for catching them begins April 1. Since peelers are caught before they reproduce, scientists fear overfishing them could affect the population of older crabs. The population of adult females has dwindled by 70 percent over the past five years, scientists said last spring. They noted that overall crab harvests have declined or remained flat since 1995.

Watermen catch them in baited "pots," which are more like wire baskets than pots, and keep them in water-filled bins until they shed their shells. They're then sold for about $20 per dozen as the softshell crabs ordered in a restaurant.

The number of licenses for peelers has increased from 506 in 1994 to 964 this year.

"The last five or six years, it's really mushroomed," said Roy Insley, head of the commission's fisheries department of plans and statistics, during an interview before the hearing.

At a meeting in May, the commission froze the sale of new licenses and restricted transfers of current licenses.

The peeler license now allows watermen to use up to 400 pots. But the commission estimates the average waterman uses only about 267. That's why its experts say reducing the number of pots won't necessarily reduce the catch. The goal is to eventually have the potential for no more than 234,000 pots in use - about the same number as in 1995.

The current proposal wouldn't quite get the number down to that, according to the commission's chief of fisheries management, Jack Travelstead. But he said it would be a start.

The reduction would prevent a growth in the catch that would be possible under the current regulations.

"Our fear on this sucker is if everyone fishes 400 pots," said Wilford Kale, a commission spokesman, before the hearing. That would mean close to 400,000 pots in use - too many, commission experts say.

Will the debate before the commission affect softshell dinner costs next spring?

Not necessarily, say regulators, since their proposals aren't designed to decrease the volume of the catch.

Watermen fear the commission is interfering with a growing industry, making rules that might not affect the number of crabs caught - but which could affect the number of crabbers catching them.

Ernest Bowden, president of the Eastern Shore Watermen's Association, said there's been an increase in the number of peeler licenses because watermen fear a repeat of restrictions the commission has placed on them in the past.

Louis Whittaker, president of the Soft Crab Producers Association, said watermen know better than scientists if the number of crabs is enough to support the industry. Scientists may take samples weekly or monthly, but watermen are on the water every day.

Jeff Long can be reached at 247-4760 or by e-mail at jlong@dailypress.com